The Immortal Ruins - Chapter 12 Overcome With A Fist
The slope was gentle, with few plants around and few rocks to hide behind. There was no nowhere to hide from the sniper.
Jiang Shaoliu moved like lighting.
He held stones in both hands, his bright eyes calm and focused.
Each step left a shallow pit in the ground and sent a puff of dust into swirling into the air as Jiang Shaoliu zigzagged in the direction of the truck.
“Let’s see who’s faster, you or my bullet.”
The sniper supported himself against the passenger door, using it as a firing platform as his finger repeatedly squeezed the trigger. Bullets whistled past Jiang Shaoliu and drilled deep holes into the hillside and kicking up dust.
Jiang Shaoliu kept on running like a phantom, completely unaffected by inertia as he changed directions in a way that seemed to defy conventional physics.
“Box him in!” roared Mr. Wang, sticking his metal spike into the ground and taking the lead to shoot at Jiang Shaoliu with his own gun.
Jiang Shaoliu did not neglect to exercise the respiratory technique recorded in the Great Sage’s Formula as he sprinted through the hail of bullets, feeling the flow of warmth coursing through him. His breath was absolutely steady as he stared at the sniper beside Mr. Wang.
“Well, I’ve had just about enough of that sniper,” Jiang Shaoliu squinted and raised the stone in his right hand.
Muscles bulging and both arms bronzed, Mr. Wang pulled the spike out from the dirt and swung at the oncoming stone.
The stone exploded against the spike, sending it flying out of Mr. Wang’s grip.
Mr. Wang stumbled backwards and hit the sniper behind him, leaving them both in a confused pile on the ground.
Even the sniper rifle didn’t have the power of a stone thrown by Jiang Shaoliu’s hand.
“Shoot him! Shoot him!” Mr. Wang screamed hysterically.
The squinty-eyed man and the other thin young man ran around Jiang Shaoliu’s flanks, the rapid fire from their guns forming a veritable net of lead around the running Jiang Shaoliu.
A lead slug spinning through the air scratched Jiang Shaoliu’s arm and drew blood. He stared at the sniper in anger.
“Trying to surround me, huh?” he thought to himself with a cool smirk. “That’s just what I was hoping for!”
He started running even faster and more nimbly until he was nothing but a blur inside a cloud of dust.
“Leave him to me!” A strong young man beside the armored car took out a submachine gun, unloading his ammo at Jiang Shaoliu on full-auto.
Jiang Shaoliu’s mind was calm and clear. He dove, glided, and zigzagged amidst the bullets, breathing freely and smoothly, his body filled with the warm flow.
“Yeah, keep running in circles! We have you surrounded!” the squinty-eyed man laughed as he slid a new clip into his gun. “You still have time to apologize! I’ll let you go if you call me ‘daddy’.”
Jiang Shaoliu ignored his childish taunts, while an idea popped in his mind. The hunters were too widely dispersed; he could take them out one by one.
He kept staring at the sniper as he ran. Muscles tightening on both legs, he changed direction mid-step and leaped toward the sniper.
The sniper quickly raised the barrel up to Jiang Shaoliu’s face and pulled the trigger.
The bullet came out.
The muzzle flash came out.
Jiang Shaoliu tilted his head, letting the bullet whistle past his ear.
“Help me!” The sniper dodged behind Mr. Wang, who quickly held up his spike with bronzed hands and violently thrust it at Jiang Shaoliu.
Jiang Shaoliu closed his eyes and waved, and Mr. Wang missed.
“How!?” Mr. Wang shouted in surprise.
He suddenly lost track of Jiang Shaoliu and started frantically looking around. His speed was beyond imagination.
“Die!” Jiang Shaoliu roared in anger behind Mr. Wang, lashing out like a thunderbolt with his right fist.
The sniper’s arms shone bronze as he lifted his rifle to block.
Boom!
The rifle shattered like a thin twig under Jiang Shaoliu’s blow. The fist continued towards the sniper’s head with unstoppable force, exploding his skull like a watermelon. The decapitated body collapsed backwards like a log.
Jiang Shaoliu did not feel any excitement as he punched and killed the sniper, but became calmer and more focused, dodging the bullets more carefully.
“Kill him already!” Mr. Wang raged.
The squinty-eyed man and the thin man had already spent several clips to no avail. The strong man kept his finger on the trigger, letting his ammunition chase Jiang Shaoliu around.
Bullets whizzing all around him, Jiang Shaoliu turned his attention to the strong man with the submachine gun.
“Run!” Mr. Wang yelled at the top of his voice, “Just run!”
The strong man scoffed. He didn’t attempt to dodge but held his submachine gun steady, ready to fight to the end.
Muscles flexed like coiled springs, Jiang Shaoliu let the warm flow inside him flood into his arms as he rammed his fist into the man’s chest with a blast of compressed air, lifting him off the ground.
Eye balls bulging out of their sockets and pupils dilating wildly, the man’s bronze light immediately vanished. His ribcage was completely crushed, fragments of bone prodding into his skin.
Jiang Shao took back his fist and the young man crumpled to the ground, throwing up blood.
Jiang Shaoliu didn’t stop there, rushing past him with his eyes set on the squinty-eyed man.
In the distance, Xiao Bai’s white fur stood on end. The tiger crept towards the thin man with its bloody mouth open and saliva dripping from its menacing canines.
There was still shooting, but the hail of bullets was not so thick as before. Jiang Shaoliu dodged effortlessly as he rushed toward the squinty-eyed man.
“Time’s up.” Jiang Shaoliu’s fist came in like a wrecking ball, a blast of compressed air blowing the man’s hair back as the blow connected.
The squinty-eyed man had his dagger held out with bronzed arms to cut Jiang Shaoliu’s arms.
Bang!
Knife and knuckles clashed, the blade leaving only a faint white mark on Jiang Shaoliu’s skin, while the force of his fist shattered the man’s hand.
Jiang Shaoliu’s fist burst straight into the squinty-eyed man’s chest cavity, breaking his ribs in half and eviscerating his lungs. It was impossible for him to live now.
In the distance, the thin young man was trembling with fear, glancing around for a path to escape.
“No!” Mr. Wang screamed hysterically from the armored car, “Watch out!”
Suddenly, Xiao Bai’s gargantuan figure appeared beside the man, sinking its massive fangs into him and tearing his head off.
The rest of the body collapsed in a pool of blood.
“Well done, Xiao Bai!” Jiang Shaoliu approached and patted the tiger’s neck. The giant tiger leaned down and gently licked his arm.
Mr. Wang was breathing heavily. “We’re from the Gang Xing Group, you will be in serious trouble if you kill me!”
“Really?”
Jiang Shaoliu shook his head and went down the slope with Xiao Bai. They didn’t look like they were going to attack, but they were quite intimidating as it is.
Mr. Wang was holding his gun in one hand and the spike in the other, sweat dripping down his forehead.
“Are you OK behind the car?” Jiang Shaoliu moved forward menacingly. “You’ve got a good position. Why aren’t you shooting?”
Mr. Wang clenched his teeth in anger, then raised the gun and squeezed the trigger.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Jiang Shaoliu didn’t dodge. He simply raised his right hand to cover his eyes and kept moving towards the vehicle.
A dull impact came from Jiang Shaoliu’s arm, leaving a light red mark. The flattened bullet dropped to the ground.
“That’s impossible!” cried Mr. Wang. “Those are special metal slugs that can even kill a bronzed master with a life ring! How can you stop them without even being bronzed?”
Jiang Shaoliu picked up the bullet on the ground and gave it a quick look-over before flinging it with all his strength.
The slug whizzed through the air and penetrated Mr. Wang’s bronzed arm, shooting out the other side with a string of blood droplets.
The spike fell to the ground.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you.”
While Mr. Wang was frozen in fear, Jiang Shaoliu charged forward and slammed an energy fist into the side of the armored car.
The bulletproof windows all shattered as the inch-thick steel chassis creaked and warped and the whole vehicle instantly flipped over, crushing Mr. Wang beneath it.
Mr. Wang’s bronze light scattered in a flash and vanished.
“Xiao Bai, go and get that fruit.” Jiang Shaoliu pointed to a water lotus on a stone in the center of a distant pool.
The parched tiger quickly trotted to the pool, lapping up gallon after gallon of water into its massive maw. Then it looked up to the stone in the center.
The water lily was dozens of meters away and Xiao Bai couldn’t reach it. The tiger turned its giant head to Jiang Shaoliu as if to say, ‘now what?’
“Silly, let me show you!” Jiang Shaoliu laughed and leaped high into the air after a short run-up.
